New campaign to amend section 44

As a very keen photographer I have taken an interest in the number of incidents involving fellow hobbyists who have been subjected to increasing harassment and restrictions on their hobby by police, PCSOs, security guards and other officials, and particularly in those cases where section 44 of The Terrorism Act 2000 has been used as a blunt instrument. So I am naturally pleased that The Independent has been featuring the issue this week and appears to be aligning itself with campaigners who are looking for a change in this “broad brush” legislation.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of civil liberties group, Liberty, has called on the Government to reassess the law.

“Section 44 stops are not based on reasonable suspicion and we know less than 1 per cent result in arrest.

“Hassling photographers and preventing them from carrying out perfectly ordinary assignments helps nobody, but blame must rest squarely with Parliament. It is time for this blunt and overly broad power to be tightened.”

Amen says I.It is high time for the pendulum to swing back towards favouring liberty and individual freedom and protection of individual rights in a way that promotes the ordinary way of British life.